Tao Fangyi was browsing guides, checking configurations and prices for electric guitars.
He sensed a ghostly aura drifting past his doorway.
Tao Fangyi: …
What was this, the twenty-second time? Yeah, twenty-two.
Wang had strolled past his door twenty-two times, each time with that telltale ripple of ghostly energy. Tao Fangyi assumed Wang had something to say, but after waiting, Wang just wandered off again, cool as anything.
A message came in from a friend asking if he wanted to go see a show—they had tickets.
Tao Fangyi chatted with his friend for a bit, then felt the ghostly aura thickening again.
He turned to face the door.
Sure enough, moments later he saw Wang arrive at his doorway. Wang hadn’t expected Tao Fangyi to look his way; he’d been peering hesitantly into the room when their eyes met.
Wang: …
Wang froze. Tao Fangyi asked, “What are you busy with?”
“Not busy. Just taking a walk,” Wang said.
Tao Fangyi looked him up and down. “Is there something you wanted to say?”
Wang’s mouth opened, but all he could squeeze out was, “Nope. Nothing.”
Tao Fangyi frowned.
Wang suddenly glanced off into the distance with an “Hey!” like something was amiss, then rushed away, scratching his head.
Wang definitely had things to say to Tao Fangyi. He just hadn’t figured out what exactly.
Right now, Wang simply wanted to talk with him, but he worried constantly hovering would just annoy Tao Fangyi.
Wang wanted a positive, engaging topic—something they could talk about for a long time.
That was a tall order for him.
Talk about rock? Wang didn’t get any of that stuff, and he didn’t want to discuss music or songs. His goal was to steer the conversation back to Tao Fangyi himself.
Oh! What if he asked, “What was it that got you into heavy metal rock?” Wouldn’t that naturally pivot the topic to Tao Fangyi?
Wang turned back around and returned to Tao Fangyi’s door. Tao Fangyi hadn’t moved—still watching him.
Wang propped one arm against the doorframe. “Uh, so… what were you doing just now?”
“Choosing a guitar,” Tao Fangyi replied.
“OH!!!” Wang suddenly shouted, making Tao Fangyi jump.
“Guitar! Because you love heavy metal rock, right!” Wang burst into loud, sunny laughter.
Tao Fangyi found Wang’s tone completely unnatural. He didn’t answer, instead calling Wang’s name with some concern.
Wang stifled his grin and held his head.
Nope. Too forced.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just wondered. I… I’m gonna go now.” Wang turned and left again.
Tao Fangyi: …
Tao Fangyi’s hand trembled slightly.
Was this kid going through some kind of major crisis?
He’d never been like this before. Before, Wang was like a walking, talking trash bin with a megaphone strapped on, constantly chanting his name. He’d always been a kid with zero sense of boundaries.
What had changed?
Shaking, Tao Fangyi messaged his friends who had kids: 【What does it mean when an originally cheerful, sort of annoying kid suddenly goes silent and withdrawn? This kid used to be wild—said anything, no filter.】
He sent it as a mass message. The responses he got were far from reassuring.
【Have you checked your assets lately?】
【Could something be happening to him online? Any strange phone calls recently?】
【Keep a close eye on him these next few days. A sunny kid going silent out of nowhere isn’t a good sign. Try to gently probe whether he’d be open to talking to a counselor. Don’t leave him alone too much, and don’t rush it either—pressure will only make it worse.】
【Be prepared. Whatever he says to you next, don’t get angry.】
The more Tao Fangyi read, the more alarmed he became.
He and Wang hadn’t argued. Things were pretty harmonious.
Could Wang have faced some terrible crisis somewhere Tao Fangyi didn’t know about?
He scoured the internet for case studies. He found story after extreme story of cheerful children who went silent and then took their own lives.
“How… how can this be?” Tao Fangyi was aghast.
Was raising a kid really this difficult? Could a child secretly encounter setbacks and die without him ever knowing?
Maybe not a typical kid, but Wang was already over a hundred when Tao Fangyi found him.
This couldn’t go on!
Tao Fangyi got up. He couldn’t let Wang just die like that.
He went looking. Stepping out, he found Wang sitting on the stairs, lost in thought.
Tao Fangyi mulled it over, then quietly approached and sat down beside him.
Wang, in the thick of brainstorming conversation topics, jolted in surprise. “You—what are you doing here?!”
Tao Fangyi took a deep breath. “You have something to say to me, don’t you?”
“No! I mean yes, uh… not quite,” Wang floundered.
Clearly, Wang was facing serious trouble. Tao Fangyi decided to offer some encouragement, placing his hand over Wang’s.
A sharp, keening sound leaked from Wang’s throat, like words escaping as a hiss before being spoken. He quickly muffled his mouth, coughing repeatedly.
Tao Fangyi patted his back.
Wang didn’t lift his upper body or look at Tao Fangyi. “Uh… I just wanted to have a chat with you.”
Good, Wang was talking.
Tao Fangyi straightened up. “What do you want to talk about?”
“…I don’t know.” Wang still hadn’t found the perfect topic.
“Just chat about whatever you want,” Tao Fangyi urged, encouraging him to share what was on his mind.
“I… do you ever find me annoying?” Wang scrubbed frantically at his hair, then sneaked a tentative glance at Tao Fangyi.
“How could I? As long as you’re willing to talk.” Tao Fangyi was fully prepared to listen intently.
“Okay.” Wang rubbed his face with both hands. “Then you talk.”
Tao Fangyi was lost.
Wang: “Uh, just say something. Like, about your memories. When you said you aren’t sad—what exactly does ‘not sad’ mean?”
“Huh?” Tao Fangyi hadn’t expected the topic to pivot right onto him.
“I just want to chat with you,” Wang said softly.
“You could have just come to me.” Tao Fangyi wouldn’t have chased him off anyway.
And what kind of personality did Wang have? Did he fear being driven away?
He’d just stubbornly keep sidling up beside him.
Noticing Tao Fangyi’s confusion, Wang sighed. “I know what you’re thinking. I’m confused too.”
But he simply couldn’t bear being disliked by Tao Fangyi. Not even a little. He couldn’t handle it.
Which was absurd, given Wang’s nature.
When he was bored, he’d go online just to pick fights and stir up arguments.
Was he afraid of being disliked? He loved being disliked—it gave him an excuse to attack.
When had Wang ever been this pathetic?
He felt like he was trapped under a jar, anxious and restless, yet through a crack he could catch the sweet, delicious aroma of food outside.
Wang didn’t want to shatter the jar. He wanted to widen that crack, so he could properly taste the meal.
Wang was thoroughly bewildered, but Tao Fangyi grasped the situation clearly now.
So this kid wanted to understand him, wanted to be liked by him, and didn’t want to be hated?
He’d been agonizing this much over that?
This kid had been tying himself in knots over him?
Tao Fangyi wanted to look into Wang’s eyes. Too bad Wang didn’t have any.
After a long struggle, Wang finally asked his first question: “Are you still hurting?”
“A bit,” Tao Fangyi nodded.
“Then why don’t you cry and let me comfort you?” Wang asked.
“You can’t comfort me,” Tao Fangyi said plainly.
Wang: “…I really am bad at comforting people.” Damn, the self-doubt was creeping back.
“It has nothing to do with that. Even if you were a fierce ghost with a hundred-percent empathy and a hundred-percent way with words, you still couldn’t comfort me,” Tao Fangyi continued.
Words can’t soothe real pain.
“But you sitting beside me makes me feel at ease.” Tao Fangyi reached out and stroked Wang’s head.
Wang: “Really?”
“Really. Just you being here gives me peace.” Tao Fangyi kept petting his head.
Wang tentatively inched closer. “Have many people kept you company before?”
“Many, many,” Tao Fangyi nodded.
“And among them, am I the one with the best personality?” Wang asked.
Tao Fangyi: …
Wang: “Were you about to say I don’t have a good personality anywhere?”
“Not exactly.” Tao Fangyi laughed.
“Fine. I know my personality’s not the best.” Wang had a fairly clear picture of himself. “But am I the most special?”
“I suppose so.” Tao Fangyi felt the longer they were together, the more unique Wang became.
Wang carefully laid his head on Tao Fangyi’s lap. Tao Fangyi said nothing, just rested his hand on Wang’s cheek. The corner of Wang’s mouth lifted.
“I can accept that I don’t like you,” Wang said.
Tao Fangyi: “Huh?”
“I mean, I believe what you said. Maybe I really did just find a sense of safety with you.” Wang spoke slowly. “Right now, I don’t feel any mad urge to sleep with you. I just want to stay quietly by your side.”
Come to think of it, his parents hadn’t been particularly responsible. It was perfectly natural for someone like Tao Fangyi—an elder figure—to become the focus of all his feelings.
Tao Fangyi: “…You are such an adorable fierce ghost!”
Wang: “Huh?! Really?!” His face instantly flushed red.
“Yes!” Tao Fangyi nodded with utter seriousness, then energetically ruffled Wang’s hair.
Wang: “Ah… ah…” Low, staccato sounds kept escaping his throat.
“Can you not handle this?” Tao Fangyi let go.
“…I can. Keep going.” Wang’s lips were trembling.
Tao Fangyi continued scrubbing Wang’s head. “Good kid! You really are a good kid!”
This child had agonized this long just to have a simple chat with him. He truly, deeply cared.
At first, Wang was at a loss, but then his tongue lolled out in bliss.
Meanwhile, Wenren Huaishu and Wang Qiang, fresh off their shift, had gone to their son’s place again.
They were a bit worried about Wenren Fu’s state of mind.
“I’m half afraid he’s gone and kidnapped that person he’s infatuated with,” Wenren Huaishu fretted. “Do you think when we open the door, we’ll find pools of blood?”
Wang Qiang was equally fretful. “Probably not… He shouldn’t be that far gone. Hopefully.”
Faces grim, they pushed the door open. A huge clatter greeted them.
The noise was so jarring it startled both their jiao dragon horns and tiger ears into appearing.
They stared toward the source. A long, furry creature, over a meter in length—somewhere between a tiger and a jiao dragon—had its eyes wide open, fixated on a sofa remnant. It swayed its head side to side and charged forward in a sideways skitter.
Its movements were oddly rhythmic, like a lion dance.
Then Wenren Fu seized the sofa remnant in a tight embrace and bodyslammed it.
After the slam, he shoved his head against the ruined piece with all his might, rolling around on the ground, twisting and wriggling on his back.
Mid-writhe, Wenren Fu spotted his parents.
Wenren Huaishu: …
Wang Qiang: …
Silently, they backed out and shut the door.
The already-broken sofa in Wenren Fu’s home had been thoroughly massacred by him.
Outside, Wenren Huaishu took a terrified breath. “H-home. Let’s go home.” She had no idea what was happening, but this version of Wenren Fu was terrifying.
Wang Qiang nodded frantically.
Suddenly, the door swung open again.
Wenren Fu’s face appeared before them.
Wenren Huaishu: “Aiyee!!!”
Wang Qiang: “Aaaah!!!”
“Mom, Dad~” Wenren Fu smiled with unsettling gentleness. “Won’t you come in for a meal?”
Wenren Fu felt his mood had never been this good.
Wenren Huaishu and Wang Qiang instinctively clutched each other’s hands.
Utterly unaware that his friends were living in fear, Tao Fangyi was coaxing sunflower seeds to germinate.
“You place them on damp paper towels and spray them with water,” he narrated as he worked. “Then wrap them in a plastic bag. They’ll sprout quickly.”
Wang crouched beside him, watching.
“I want roasted sunflower seeds,” Wang said, just to be provocative.
Tao Fangyi glanced at him, then separated half the seeds. “We’ll roast these later.”
“You’re really giving them to me?” Wang was astonished.
“Do you want them?” Tao Fangyi asked.
Wang nodded.
“Then this half is yours.”
Wang felt a surge of joy. He hugged his knees and buried the lower half of his face in his arms.
“Oh, we’ll also need to loosen the soil later,” Tao Fangyi said, also crouched.
In the backyard, they discussed where to plant the flowers. As Tao Fangyi spoke, he reached for a plastic bag being blown open by the wind.
His hair slipped from his shoulder. Just before it could touch the ground, Wang caught it.
Wang straightened up and swept Tao Fangyi’s hair back into place. Then he stood and cheerfully trotted off to retrieve the plastic bag.
After handing it back to Tao Fangyi, Wang crouched down again, smiling at him.
Tao Fangyi looked up and studied Wang’s beaming face. “You look so happy today.”
Wang said, “I just am.”
“I’m happy too,” Tao Fangyi lowered his head and went back to working the seeds.
“Why?” Wang leaned in slyly, sneaking closer.
“Because of you.” Tao Fangyi answered truthfully.
Feeling valued was truly wonderful—especially when Wang’s feelings were so pure, so direct.
Wang nearly let out a tiny shriek.
Very carefully, he spoke. “Me too.” It was barely a whisper.
A long moment passed before he added, “Because of you.”
“Is he finally going to commit patricide?” Wang Qiang asked Wenren Huaishu.
“Haha, what kind of tea would you like?” Wenren Fu was trying his hardest to seem gentle, but his pupils were far too dilated. For some reason, his face was flushed crimson—he was clearly in a state of extreme manic excitement.
“Maybe he just wasn’t done playing yet,” Wenren Huaishu offered in Wenren Fu’s defense.
Wenren Fu suddenly let out a peal of “Hehehehe” laughter.
No one had made him laugh.
Wenren Huaishu: …
Now she and Wang Qiang sat perched on two cushions that were still relatively intact.
She looked around at the scattered, shredded corpse of the sofa and wrung her hands helplessly.
“I love the look in his eyes,” Wenren Fu murmured to himself.
Wenren Huaishu: …
Wang Qiang: …
Who?
Whose eyes had he seen?!
